Conrad Atkinson in all his glory at the Dunville Fountain is pictured above. I'm delighted to read the comments coming in on this issue and while Fra McCann left a message for me today, I haven't had a chance to get back to him to take this issue a step further.
However, this afternoon, I did take a delegation of Irish-American activists, including General James Cullen of the Brehon Law Society, attorney Grant Lally who has been active in the campaign to amend the immigration laws, and Ned McGinley of the AOH, around West Belfast and showed them the fountain. Every time I envisage it as a restored centrepiece of a resurgent west Belfast, my heart swells.
Our Irish-American friends were bowled over by the enthusiasm and professionalism of the pupils and teachers at Coláiste Feirste, Belfast's award-winning Irish medium school for children aged from 11-18. Among those rolling out the red carpet were several young teachers who were actually educated at the school.
Before coming to the west, our visitors had been meeting groups close to the thinking of the loyalist paramilitaries and they remain determined to continue those links — and for the AOH especially, this were there first meeting with the UVF and UDA-alligned groups — when they return home. Wouldn't it be a sign of progress if we could give Jackie McDonnell and Dawn Purvis the guided tour of the Falls which we gave to friends who live, not three miles away, but 3,000 miles away.
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